The Witcher 2: We're not afraid of Dragon Age

It's a side effect. It wasn't the main factor of this decision. But it's not bad that we're not at the same time as Dragon Age II.

You're right, but it's misleading for a lot of people. I can't say it's not true. It is true. Developers want to have more action in their games. Boring games are not good. It's not like you're changing the genre of the game. Role-playing games will not become shooters... I mean, Mass Effect was an exception. OK, we're not doing Mass Effect.

What I'm trying to say is a lot of things that were happening in role-playing games on a daily basis years ago are too hardcore right now. It's not like we're doing a completely different genre. This is what the role-playing game is right now.

The story is never dumbed down. Good role-playing games kept really good story, and you experience the story in an even deeper way than you would previously because of better graphics, direction and cut-scenes.

Combat is more spectacular. The means to express it is just to make it real-time. Previously combat was more turn-based. We don't have turn-based combat right now. It's a better means of expression.

Have you played Demon's Souls?

It is very hard. I've played through it twice – hundreds of hours of gameplay. I loved the game. That's why I can put myself in the place of these guys who complain. They're used to stuff not too many people are doing these days because they're putting hundreds of hours into single games.

To them, playing a game that has more dynamic and fluent combat is probably something against what they're used to, and they're probably screaming loudest.

Well, it doesn't look worse than the first one. So it doesn't look bad. I had an issue with the demo at gamescom. There was a lot of combat and not too much story. I would like to get deeper into story.

Until I know more about the story of Dragon Age II, I can't tell you more.

We have been inspired. I'm not hiding this. We have.

This is too difficult a question because I can't tell you directly what's happening inside the studio, but I want to tell you we're doing everything we can to make sure one day The Witcher 2 will be released on the current generation of consoles.

Yes. I can even tell you more. We already have performed a lot of tests. We're doing a reality check every half a year or so. We take a level from the game and we try to put it inside our engine, because it's console-capable on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Occasionally, from time to time, we do reality checks, and it's doable.

It's too late. We would have announced it already. It would be stupid not to announce it by now.

Can't say. Probably by Christmas next year you will know way more.

It's not only about ideology, but it's business wise. It's the only direction you can go, that's why we want to do it. We're not hiding it. Yes! This is a wise thing to do, and we will do it whenever we're able to.

Three reasons: time, people and money. We have not released any console games yet. That's why we're approaching this topic with even more caution.

One thing you could do is read the books. It's a really comfortable situation for us to work on a world that's not a generic one. Players don't even have to know it, because we're doing a game that will sell – we hope – everywhere, even in the markets where people don't know the books and don't know who Andrzej Sapkowski is.

So you don't have to know the books. It's a totally separate chapter not only from the books but also from the first game. There are connections but it's more like rewarding the players that have played the first game.